December 2014 Dividend , Options , Adsense and Interest monthly report

 The whirlwind of the holiday season is finally over. Thank god, I hate traveling and visiting people really. I don't like much company. I like things dull and predictable! I especially big dividend and options paying months!

Stocks have been very volatile still with big swings up and down as my portfolio has been buncing around.

My monthly dividend payers have been doing the heavy lifting. One of my Reits Cominar CUF.un had  a double payment this month. Also this is my last Tim Hortons dividend as the stock has been absorbed into burger king. I took the option of a partial share switch over into their new merger holding QSR but mainly I got paid out in cash to pay down my margin.

Options activity was steady but nothing spectacular with just a few apple put options.

Adsense was up since it was its first full month. My total pageviews were down as I have not been very active during this month.

On a personal note. My dad is not in the best shape still and is in line for a quintuple bypass. He is being very stubborn and is not quitting his over drinking of homemade wine and moonshine. Also his rich diet of salty foods, red meat , high fat and sugar diet is not helping. I have tried to get him to change his ways by hiding the alcohol and grocery shopping for him but he is not very compliant. Its like he is basically giving up without trying which is disappointing. If he continues his bad habits a heart attack or stroke could happen any day now.

One good thing coming of this is his finances. He just sold one of his houses and is giving me money to buy another house to have in my name as an inheritance as an income property. I personally dont want another rental property but I cant convince him I rather have money in equities. He wont even let me buy a commercial property which I would rather have. It has to be a house close to me and no older than 15 years old. So I don't have much say how I will receive my inheritance but it is greatly appreciated regardless. I did buy him a new big screen tv for chirstmas as a gift in return to show my gratitude.

So I have been house hunting for the last two months and pretty much seen the entire market in my area. I found a place I could feel comfortable to live in if I decide to sell my current house. I will keep both places as long as my father is alive and respect his wishes. After that I will more than likely sell my current home and move into this new cheaper one to free up equity. This also brings up a conundrum since I am holding so many REITS in my portfolio. Either I unload them to pay off my margin and take a 10% hit on them or keep them and pay off my margin slowly. Haven't decided what to do yet but I think I will wind up doing something in the middle with a partial sell.

Details of my home purchase and a 2014 year end review post will be coming soon.

Happy New year to all and hope the markets soar in 2015!

December 2014 Dividends Paid
        Monthly payers
 86.63  - HR.UN HR Reit
232.65 - AX.UN Artis Reit
177.33 - D.UN Dream Office Reit
133.34 - DRG.UN Dream Global Reit
 94.36 - REI.UN RioCan Reit
367.50 - CUF.UN Cominar Reit
123.75 - RMM.UN Retrocom Reit
105.00 - BTB.UN BTB Reit
  80.50 - CPG Crescent Point Energy
 18.33 - SJR.B Shaw Communications
 25.70 - ENF Enbridge Income fund
 18.17 - CJR.B Corus Entertainment
   Quarterly Payers
 96.00 - FTS Fortis
 35.00 - ENB Enbridge
 32.00 - THI Tim Hortons
 33.60 - SU Suncor
 86.87 - COP ConocoPhillips
 33.15 - AFL Aflac
 16.32 - V Visa
 83.30 - JNJ Johnson & Johnson
 23.37 - IBM IBM
 32.64 - EMR Emerson Electric
 44.12 - UL Unilever
 23.97 - DD Dupont
 36.12 - MCD Mcdonalds
 19.63 - QCOM Qualcomm
 64.80 - BP BP
 59.22 - RDS.B Royal Dutch Shell
 84.68 - IDV Ishares INTL Select Div ETF
$2,268.05 - TOTAL



Total option premiums in December
 $657.49
 Options Notes -
- Playing Apple a bit with puts that have expired worthless

Total interest paid towards margin for December
$396.00

Adsense for my blog in December
 $16.17
- 11,316 : Pageviews for December
- 14 : Number of ad clicks


2014 Running Dividend Total              $13,291.20
2014 Running Interest Total                   $1,842.54
2014 Running Option premiums total   $4,960.54
2014 Running Adsense total                        $27.03

2014 Breakdown    Dividends     Options       Interest      Adsense
- December           $2,268.05       $657.49     $396.00        $16.17
- November          $2,182.56       $616.81      $501.82        $10.86
- October               $2,499.87    $2,167.48     $538.20
- September           $2,088.65     $1,518.76     $318.73
 - August                $1,482.38                           $87.79
 - July                     $1,239.74
 - June                       $608.62
 - May                       $531.13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS  2014       $13,291.20    $4,960.54   $1,842.54     $27.03

From Super Reits to Stupid Reits lol

Recently last month I took a gamble and purchased $150k worth of Reits on margin LINK

Ohhhhhhh how it has not been going to plan so far.

$152,669 has plummeted down to $146,045
That is a $6,624 loss so far or 4.3%. Wow that is a big drop for a time period of only 28 days in the so called safe investment of real estate.

Also I have paid $229 in interest for my (3%) margin account to borrow the money to invest.

On the bright side I have received $914 in dividends so far from just this play as they are all monthly payers but whats the point really to earn 7.5% in dividends a year when your investment goes down 10% lol.


In Conclusion

So far it has been a bad investment but I am not worried about it just yet. It is early as its only been a month. I will give it a close watch to see how things shape up in the coming months and continue to pay down my margin debt from dividends received. I will make periodic updates on just the REIT play to keep you people informed.

I

In a splurge purchase I have purchased a new phone which will not be here till mid next month. It is a lot of money for a phone. Sure I could get one subsidized from my carrier but I really dislike contracts as my last provider really took me to the cleaners as I tried to switch. I dont spend much on myself and its an item I use very often. Plus my last iphone 5 lasted me over 2 years now which is the longest I have ever had a phone without upgrading. I am hoping for this new phone to last another 2 years thus the apple care warranty. I am firmly against extended warranties but I feel justified with this one as phones are very accident prone and I will be running this one without a case so it can fit in my pocket still lol. This is the second most expensive phone I have ever owned. WHATTTT u say???? Yes In 1996 I spend over $1600 on a Motorola StarTAC. LOL How far have we come. The StarTac was the leap into the future at the time before texting was a thing and 50 cents a minute was the going rate for a phone plan.

Other News

I have been playing with about 100k in my US margin account. I have been selling Apple puts for a few dollars below market price and the 300 shares of Apple I do have I have been selling covered Calls for a few dollar above. Overall I am bullish on Apple and have been playing the stock to take advantage of it.

I still hold 600 shares in my retirement account I am not touching or playing options with. My max 100k play is to see what kind of money I can make options trading writing aggressive options.

In my coming posts in a few days I will give a Grandma Olga ETF update LINK
Also a project debt Ali update LINK








So how have your guys plays , buy,sells and options been? Also what is the most you have spent on a phone and what has been your favorite. I think my old time favorite was my Motorola black MicroTac elite phone. Was great with slim detachable batteries and looked very classy at the time.

August 2014 Dividend and Monthly Report Update

August proved some changes in my Portfolio. From sneaking into Apple dividends with 1000 shares to buying over 150k Reits on Margin. but we cant forget the main reason for it all. THE DIVIDENDS! One day I will not have to make any moves at all and just live off my dividend income. Till then I will grind aggressively forward!


Here is my Dividend total for August


          2014 Running Total - $3861.82
                            *Aug - $1,482.38    Interest total  $87.79
                            *July - $1,239.74       
                            *June -  $608.62
                            *May -  $531.13

August 2014 Dividends Paid
 58.75 - REI.UN RioCan Reit
 39.37 - HR.UN  H&R Reit
105.00 - COS Canadian Oil Sands
 18.33 - SJR  Shaw Communications
 50.70 - BMO Bank of Montreal
 28.00 - D.UN Dream Office Reit
 22.92 - ENF Enbridge Income Fund
 52.65 - AX.UN Artis Reit
 46.00 - CPG Crescent Point Energy
 38.00 - PG  Proctor Gamble
 30.60 - CL Colgate
 60.31 - KMI Kinder Morgan
704.07 - AAPL Apple
 8.80  - DOL  Dollarama
 37.74 - CLX Clorox
 50.91 - VZ Verizon
 71.00 - RY Royal Bank
 59.23 - T AT&T
$1,482.38 - August Total

      $87.79 -August Interest Total

- Added new interest total for cost of borrowing on Margin- August interest total $87.79

- RY Royal Bank increases annual dividend by 5.6% from $2.84 to $3.00
- BNS Bank of Nova Scotia increases annual dividend by 3.1% from $2.56 to $2.64 making it its second dividend increase this year




In Summary

Highest total yet. Since I have started borrowing money at margin I will be paying interest charges that will eat up my dividend totals but as long as my dividends total outweighs my interest total it will all be good. Yes it is risky to borrow money to make money but it is not a significant portion of my net worth and I will be fine if things go sour.

Real Estate News

Not much too report but been pounding the pavement. I have been looking at rental income homes, Potential downsize homes and Lots for sale to build on. There has been a few interesting opportunities but not the right one yet for me to jump on.

Also helped my parents list a home of theirs for sale. Maybe an early inheritance soon coming for me. We will see how things pan out. I am not counting on or expecting anything from them but hey if they want to help me and fund my children's education I would be very grateful.



Market News

Portfolio is rebounding quite nicely from the other months late dip. I hope to report a decent net worth gain mid month if things stay on track.

As detailed before I made a big bet LINK on APPLE for 100k. Things worked out and my option was called for an overall 5k gain after all fees and borrowing costs. The last few days Apple has dropped hard due to the ICloud Scandal. I have to admit I browsed through the pics of Jenifer Laurence ( Thank U Intrawebs!!!) I have since jumped back into another 1000 shares of APPLE at $99.11 average cost which is so far down a $1. I plan on writing options again on it once the price rebounds on it. I am hoping for another 5-10k gain on this bet and will update its progress.

My Big REIT purchase  LINK is down a lil bit 1% overall. I am not worried because Bank of Canada just announced no change to interest rates and also I snuck in a day before the Ex-dividend date on the REITS so it naturally is down a few days after.







Brewery News

Not much too report but just some standard closing documents for share structure. Official possession of new building is next month but we have access to it now. Equipment has been ordered and building improvements have already begun. Hopefully by Christmas we will be pouring our first batch of brew.

Other News- In perspective of it all

School is in session. Oh not for me but my daughter. She is starting junior kindergarten. We have been looking into schools in the area and we have found a non religious private school close by. Yes it is very pricey but I want better for my children's education. I know for me growing up the school system failed me many times. I just skated by as a young punk in over crowded classrooms with teachers not giving a crap about you. For me school was not a safe place and the last few years of high school I carried a knife with me to school for my own protection and a couple occasions I had to use it. School was an extremely stressful time for me and I dont want my kids to have the same experience.

This was a one of reasons why I moved out from the big city. I am very grateful and lucky for what I have. That said I have been debating back and forth about private school for a few years. Yes it is an enormous cost. I have estimated it will cost me $450,000 just to put both my children through to grade 12 and that's not including post secondary. Insane huh. How can one justify this cost.

To me its all about sacrifice. I am willing to sacrifice A fancy home to live in more modest dwellings. I am willing to skip out on personal indulgences (New cars, Vacations, Man toys) for my kids education. This is why I have been looking at downsizing my current home primarily to tell you the truth. Its an investment in their future. As a parent I have learned to stop being so god damn selfish. I used to be Scrooge McDuck grasping my money tight. I was wealthy but miserable. My only purpose was to make money. Now I realize life isn't just about money but living a fulfilled life with purpose. My purpose is to be happy and take care of my family. Dont get me wrong as money places a close second behind my family.

So as my daughter just finished her first day at school I was very impressed with the school and happy about my decision. The amount of time teachers spend with students, the amount of staff on hand, the smaller classroom size,the increased amenities at the school, the extra curricular activities they offer. Its everything I never had at a school. Perhaps my daughter will be CEO of a a fortune 500 company or a hedge fund manager one day. You never know!  Even if my daughter wants to pursue a sports, arts career I am fine with it. Hell even if she wants to be a mechanic or a plumber as long as she has the opportunity to do whatever she wants to is all I can ask for.

This does not deter my end goal in life. My end goal is still to grind forward every year with an increasing net worth. I don't want to die penniless but hand down a legacy my kids can continue with as well grinding forward into the billions and trillions one day. I want them to become asset grinders always reaching for that next rung and challenging themselves in life.

So how was your guys August for investments? Any thoughts on private school?

Random Updates May 15

- I have a meeting with my so called financial adviser tomorrow. I am primarily self directed but I have 100k with him in non registered account invested in 4 DFA mutual funds, Canadian core equity, US core equity, Intl core equity and global real estate. I am looking to get into more international and emerging markets so I am looking to rebalance. I am even considering dumping all my funds and replacing them with more dividend growth stocks. Anyone have any thoughts on this?


- Haven't checked my credit scores in years so i decided to get an equifax report. The result 764 !!! thought i would be in the 800,s.. grrrrrrr. Its still good but i want better. Main prob is I have no debt, no car loans, no mortgage to pay bills on. Well I guess that is a good problem to have.

- been looking to downsize my home. Home is worth about 1.35 million with no mortgage and i just have much too much equity in there not working for me. Thinking even if I downsize to place 900k to a million that would free up 300k to invest after fees. Tough call, Family loves the current house but you gotta do what you gotta do me thinks. Problem is my parents would be very against me selling and I dont want to tick them off too much as they are in the process of making a trust and will!

-Been looking into investing into a microbrewery and bottling startup. I have been burned on deals in the past but this time around I am doing my due diligence this time. Had 3 accountants , 2 lawyers  and multiple others check out the business plan and numbers back and forth. Minimum investment is 100k and its a forever hold pretty much. They hope to turn a profit in year 2 and years 2-5 outlook looks rosy. But who really knows really? The whole team is quite experienced as they own a couple other successful pubs/restaurants and I had good vibes from them. Its a tough call for me really. I like the business and if it hits i will be be looking at 20%+ returns for a long time. Gonna meet with my lawyer next week and run down the numbers, legalities and make the call then.

- I have been asked to manage my in laws finances. I have steered her in the right direction on a few real estate deals and she has alot of trust in me. To me its a big burden. She is 60 and has 200k in cash with little income. She wants the money to last. At first i sent her to a a couple of financial advisers but she did not trust them at all. I tried to steer her toward the fixed income route of gics and bonds but she wasn't impressed by the returns 2-3.5%. I informed her about dividend growth stocks and REITs which she is quite keen on the returns 5%+. I do not want to take her down that route without her learning more about all the investments. The current plan is 100% Canadian stocks -30% REITs - 30% Banks - 20% telecoms - 20% energy. All dividend stocks with avg yield goal 4.5-5%. Any thoughts from you guys would be greatly appreciated. I tend to be overly careful when dealing with others money much more so than my own cash. I prefer her to go a safer route with like a 60% bonds gic mix 40% dividend growth stocks/REITS with an overall 3.6-4.0% total yield but she is not happy with that return.

- Started the blog and everything is all new to me. So much to learn, getting around to things slowly as I have so much on the go. I have to focus on the direction I want to take the blog as I am just going with the flow in the meantime. Got my twitter up and running which was easy peasy.

- Money Sense Magazine ! So I took my kids to the library last week and they were milling about. I grabbed a few magazines and one was money sense. I read it from cover to cover.. Was my first time reading that publication, I found it quite interesting. Its a great Canadian perspective that covers all aspects of investing and taxation. I found it so useful i took out the last two years publications. I have since read half of them cover to cover and i just signed up for a 2 year print subscription. This is my first ever paid magazine subscription, also comes with free ebooks for my ipad. total cost was 48$ for 2 years which is pretty cheap.

- TD bank web broker service- I have been a long time e-trade user which later was absorbed by scotia bank Itrade. I was never really impressed by them and their research is awful and I relied more on public research than theirs. I then jumped over to TD web broker to get their 300 free trade promotion going at the time. Wow I am impressed, The research on equities is awesome. So easy to use and its my go too now. Also their customer service is awesome. Direct help, no holding times and very helpful. I have made 4 calls to the help line and all were handled better than expected. TD also does free investing seminars at their busier locations which I appreciate.

- Gotta go my wifey is upset I spend so much time on the computer lately